The Holidays and New Milestones

December brought a lot of excitement to our house. Natalie sang in her very first concert, the boys experienced Christmas for the first time (not that they noticed), and Kevin was able to stay home for eighteen days. It was difficult for all of us when he went back to work. We’re thankful that he has a job in which he’s able to spend so much time at home during the holidays. Although with three little ones at home, we don’t get all the “to do list” items done that we’d like. It was enough just to be home as a family though.

Natalie’s Christmas Program

Natalie’s preschool, Noah’s Ark, put on their annual holiday concert featuring the best and brightest three and four year olds in town. I don’t know how those teachers got a group of over 60 toddlers to stand in one place and sing to a crowd of adoring parents and friends! Natalie was absolutely thrilled. We took a special shopping trip to buy her a dress. Of course I pick out the fancy holiday dresses with black velvet tops and full shiny red or green skirts. To humor Natalie we picked up the dress she wanted and took that as well to the dressing room. This dress was varying shades of purple, had silver glitter all over it, rouching in the middle…..not the “holiday” dress I pictured her in, but we must humor the three year old. In the dressing room, she humors me by trying on all of the fancy dresses I picked out and has reactions of “Oh, that’s nice” or “I think it’s okay” or “Yeah, maybe” then quickly took them off. When we got her purple dress, she puts it on, twirls around, giggles uncontrollably, jumps up and down and squeals. How do you argue with a reaction like that? So Mom’s dreams of the perfect holiday dress were replaced with a vision even more beautiful, a very happy little girl. Who am I kidding? She looks beautiful no matter what she wears! She even picked out some silver glitter covered dress shoes to go with her sparkly dress. There’s just one thing that we didn’t get…..shorts to wear under the dress.

While preparing for the concert, I remind her to keep her skirt down. She has the tendency to grab her skirt and flip it around when she get excited. I reminded her over and over again that she can’t do that on stage because everybody would see her panties. In the car on the way to the concert, we have the same discussion. When we get to the church, once again we have this discussion. Strangely she is one of the shorter students in her class. Luckily the shorter kids were placed up front. Do you see where this is going? Yes, indeed. She did well through most of the concert but toward the end she just couldn’t help it and up comes the skirt. What can you do but laugh? Oh to be a three year old! She still talks about her concert and goes around the house singing her songs. We bought her a karaoke machine for Christmas and she absolutely loves singing her songs. We have about 60 Raffi songs and about 40 Dora songs memorized at this point, and I’m talking about Kevin and I!

Tristan & Everett

It’s hard to believe that next week marks eight months of feeding, diapering, clothing, cleaning, etc, etc, etc. The boys are growing both physically and developmentally.

Everett is now very study and stable when he sits on his own. He’ll sit for a half hour to 45 minutes just playing with (chewing on) his toys. He especially likes sitting and watching his sister dance around and act silly. She loves playing peek-a-boo with him, and basically doing anything to make him laugh. He has the sweetest laugh. It just sounds so genuine.

He has begun “talking” more with his usual “aaaaa dadadadada” and his very high pitch squealing. I swear sometimes only dogs can hear him! After he squeals he’ll look at you and either give you a big grin or giggle. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen, or heard. He’s a pro at rolling over and will roll across the room with ease. At one point he was more mobile than Tristan just by rolling.

Everett continues to be a finicky eater. We feel as though we have to force him to finish a five ounce bottle. Somehow he knows when he’s finished three ounces. He squirms, screams and pushes the bottle out forcefully. It then takes another hour for him to finish the last two ounces. He’s proving to be quite finicky with solid food as well. He’ll eat maybe two tablespoons of oatmeal if I put cinnamon and sugar in it. I try to put some fruit in with the oatmeal, but that doesn’t always work out. I’m not pushing it though. He’ll eat when he’s ready. He’s kind of like his father in the fact that you’re not going to rush him into anything. He’ll do things in his own time.

Tristan continues to be a brute. He’s our twenty pound butterball. Tristan’s eating habits haven’t changed too much. He’ll pretty much eat anything you put in his mouth. He finishes six ounce bottles with ease and will easily have solid food not long after that. So far he enjoys eating applesauce, pears, mangos, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. I tried making some peas and green beans, but I don’t think I cooked them long enough and the texture was pretty rough. He didn’t really enjoy that. Now I’m a bit afraid to introduce them again. I think I’m just lazy!

Tristan is on the brink of crawling. For the past few weeks he’s been getting onto all fours and rocking, then lunging. He moves around pretty efficiently. It’s almost as if he just can’t take the time to figure out the whole crawling technique. This child is always on the move, always finding exactly what he shouldn’t be getting into, and always heads straight for the box of wipes. We’ll put the box on the bottom shelf of our entertainment unit and he’ll try to climb in there just to get the box. He’s even bonked his head on the upper shelf trying to get in. His newest trick got him in trouble this week. We usually put him on the floor in the seated position. He’s somewhat learned how to get onto his belly from that position. I saw somewhat because he basically throws himself on the floor. On Wednesday he threw himself on the floor, only to find a toy where he landed. I heard the bonk, then heard the unbearable cry. I think I’m a pretty tough mom and don’t get too emotional when my kids are crying (they cry a lot, so I have to have some thick skin or else I’d be a wreck!). This cry was not like any other cry. I grabbed him and he buried his head in my neck and would NOT let go. Here come the mommy tears! I knew he was okay, but this genuine outcry really affected me. He had two red bumps on his eyebrow for a day, but seems to be fine.

The biggest milestone for Mister T is the addition of his first two teeth! I didn’t really notice the first one coming up and my mom actually felt it first. But since that once came, the next one has been pretty painful for him. He’s a more irritable kid than most I’d say, then to add teething on top of that has been exhausting. He hasn’t been sleeping well at night, is very irritable during the day, hasn’t been taking very good naps……just when things were getting easier!